In order to put it out of the way, Ainz leaned his staff against the table. The staff reflected the
sunlight, which created various to bright reflections. Although he was in a rundown village home,
he still found himself surrounded by the illusions of a mythical world. Ainz recalled the amazed
expressions of the villagers.
Upon beholding the high level staff Ainz and his companions had created, the villagers were in
awe, causing Ainz to feel very proud. However, this fleeting feeling immediately became merely
a normal level of happy, causing Ainz to furrow his non-existent eyebrows.
He really disliked his forced composure. However, being too scatter-brained would make it
difficult for him to resolve future problems. Reflecting on this, Ainz prepared himself for the
challenge in front of him:
He needed to negotiate with the village chief about the reward for saving the village.
Ainz’s true objective was gathering information rather than gold, but directly asking for
information would raise suspicions.
Although this small vil age shouldn’t be too much of a problem, Ainz was stil worried about the
authorities of the land. If such people knew that Ainz frequently mingled with the villagers to gain information about this world, they would immediately manipulate him.
Am I being too cautious?
Ainz felt like this situation was similar to dashing across the road. There was a chance that he
could get into a fatal accident at any moment. In other words, there might be a chance that he
would meet with the world’s strongest fighters.
Ghoststaker: Remember to look left and right in case of Martial artists…
Strength was relative.
Ainz might’ve been stronger than anyone he had met in this vil age, however that didn’t mean
he was stronger than everyone else in this world. Also, right now Ainz was an undead and
judging from the girl’s past reactions, the general disposition towards undead was very obvious.
He needed knowledge about his situation and he had to be careful since he could be attacked
at any time by humans who hated him.
"I kept you waiting."
The village chief sat down on the seat across from Ainz and his wife stood behind him.
The village chief had dark, muscular skin and a face full of wrinkles.
From a glance you could tell that his robust body was forged through heavy manual labor. Half
of his hair was already white.
Although his cotton clothes were stained with dirt, they didn’t smell.
From the weary look of his face, one would guess that he was more than forty years old. His
actual age however was hard to accurately discern.
Apparently the today’s events caused him to age a few years. The vil age chief’s wife seemed to
be as old as he was.
Although she formerly had the charm of a slim, delicate beauty, many years of hard farm work
have washed it almost completely away. Her face was full of freckles. Now she was only a
skinny, old auntie with disheveled, shoulder-length black hair. Even if viewed in the sunlight, its
color would still be dull.
"Please."
The old lady put a humble village cup on the table. Albedo wasn’t served because she was stil
walking around the village.
Ainz raised his hand to decline the steaming cup with the boiled water.
He didn’t feel thirsty and he couldn’t take off his mask. But since he saw the hard work put into
preparing the water, he should have declined earlier.
By the way, the hard work refers to the task of boiling the water.
She started with a flint. Showering small sparks onto thin wood chips, she then let the fire grow
larger. It took her a while to get the stove’s fire going, and then she had to wait until the hot
water boiled.
She didn’t use electricity, but a fire she made by hand to boil the water. This was the first time
Ainz saw anything like this and, he was very interested in the process. In Ainz’s original world,
everyone in the past used gas to cook, so what she just did should be about as hard.
Regarding technology, Ainz wanted to use the opportunity to gather some information. Thinking
this way, Ainz once again faced the village chief.
“Even though you boiled water especially for me, I’m truly sorry.”
"You are too kind, there’s no need to apologize."
Ainz, who is gently bowing his head to apologize, made the couple feel uneasy. They couldn’t
imagine that the person ordering the "Death Knight" around would actually bow his head in
order to apologize.
But this idea wasn’t the least bit strange to Ainz. Showing a friendly attitude before they started
the negotiations was definitely a good thing.
Of course, he could always deal with it as he did with those sisters, using 「Confuse Humanoid」
or some other magic to pry out information and later use high level magic to change their
memories. But that kind of thing should only be used as a last resort because the MP
consumption for doing that would be too high.
Ainz recalled the feeling of using up MP: His body would feel oddly tired, as if it had lost
something.
After he put on the mask and gloves, he had to use a gigantic amount of MP just to change ten
seconds’ worth of memories.
“... Then let us get to the point, the discussion about my reward.”
“Yes. However, before we start the negotiation… Thank you very much!”
The Village Chief bowed in thanks, his head almost hitting the table. His wife also followed suit
and bowed:
“If it wasn’t for you, all of the vil agers would be dead. We are real y grateful!”
Ainz was surprised to receive such heartfelt gratitude.
Recalling his previous life, he never received such thanks... No, the two girls from before also
thanked him like this. It was just that he never saved anyone before, and now he felt like he did
the right thing.
He didn’t dislike receiving this kind of sincere thanks even when he was stil human, although
he still felt embarrassed——perhaps this was a remnant of his humanity.
Note: We were confused by “鈐木悟 ” and after debating this was the best we could come up with.
“Please raise your heads. Like I said before, this is nothing you should be concerned about.
Because I wasn’t helping you for free.”
“We know that, but please allow us to thank you nonetheless. Because of your help many
vil agers were able to survive.”
“... As long as they pay more. First, let’s discuss the matter of the reward. As the Vil age Chief
you should be rather busy.”
“Nothing is more important than spending some time with our saviour, however following my
principles would be the sincerest form of respect.”
The Village Chief slowly raised his head and Ainz quickly started to use his non-existent brain.
To not rely on magic, but conversation to gain his information.
───How troublesome.
How much effect would his past experiences with sales have on the situation right now? Ainz
hoped he would be able to use at least half of his old skills. Having mentally prepared himself,
he spoke:
“... Then I’l get straight to the point, how much can you pay me?”
“We cannot afford to be stingy for our savior. Regarding copper and silver coins, if we do not
collect from everyone, we are unsure how much we have, but as for copper coins, we should
have about 3000 now.”
Ainz stil didn’t know how much that was worth, so he ridiculed himself in his heart.